Study › Runes & Norse › The Theft of Idunn's Apples
The goddess Idunn keeps the apples that keep the gods young. When the giant Thjazi carried her off, the gods grew grey and old, until Loki flew to Jotunheim and brought her back.
Thjazi and Loki
The goddess Idunn keeps the apples that hold age away from the gods. Her abduction began when Odin, Loki and Hoenir, travelling in the wilds, could not get their meat to cook; an eagle in a tree offered to help in exchange for a share, and when Loki struck at it in anger he found himself stuck fast and carried aloft. The eagle was the giant Thjazi, who freed Loki only after he swore to deliver Idunn — and her apples — out of Asgard.
The gods grow old
Loki lured Idunn into a wood with talk of finer apples than her own, and Thjazi, again in eagle-shape, swept her away to his hall Thrymheim. Deprived of the apples, the gods swiftly grew grey and old, and tracing the loss to Loki, they threatened him with death unless he set it right.
Loki brings Idunn back
Borrowing Freyja's falcon-skin, Loki flew to Jotunheim, turned Idunn into a nut, and raced home with her in his claws. Thjazi gave chase as an eagle; but as he crossed Asgard's walls the gods kindled a fire that caught his feathers, and he fell and was slain. Afterward his daughter Skadi came armed to Asgard to avenge him, and was reconciled with a husband chosen among the gods and other amends, while Odin cast Thjazi's eyes into the sky as stars. The tale is preserved in Snorri's Skaldskaparmal.
Read about Idunn, Loki and Thjazi's daughter Skadi.
Questions
Who stole Idunn?
The giant Thjazi, in the shape of an eagle, with Loki's help.
How did Loki bring Idunn back?
He flew to Jotunheim in Freyja's falcon skin, turned her into a nut and carried her home.